400: Lagoon 400 Performance

[nikki-m]

Now that the sales of Lagoon 400s have reached the early 100s, there must be more than a few owners of this type of vessel on here.

Yet I can still read very little about its sailing characteristics in "real" weather. All the magazine write-ups have been describing the handling in calm winds and smooth seas.

So what is the real story about its performance? How does it handle in 20+ knots of wind? 3m waves? 5m waves? How does it sail when close-hauled? What is the typical leeway made on this point of sail?

Also, are there any essential modifications / improvements that owners feel neccessary to improve day-to-day living on board?

Thanks for any contributions,
Nikki

[timandchanel]

I have no idea but would imagine the high seas performance and high wind performance is not the issue. The huge bridgedeck will be great in big seas and high wind will push just about anything (including the high bridgedeck!). The light airs is the key and what I think will determine the usefulness of this boat.

[nikki-m]

Actually high seas performance and high winds performance IS the issue!
I have experienced and am satisfied with its light airs performance - what I would like to know now is its poor weather performance.

[timandchanel]

Great! we have not even seen one yet, but are due to go aboard later this month. I was worried about the light airs but would be interested in your experience. Will certainly let you know how we get on although will unlikely experience heavy conditions sorry. As mentioned I imagine the boat will be very dry in these conditions but the windage will be an issue. Thanks again for starting this thread.

[timandchanel]

OK in light winds, realistically this boat performed as expected. For what its worth we have not purchased but over 200 people have I hear.

[meirriba]

I have sailed about 4,000 NM on Lagoon400 this summer - here are my 5 cents worth of experience:
1. Very light/light winds 5-10Kn - boat is sluggish. If sea is flat, the boat will start to live at about 8-10Kn. It helps much to use gennaker/code zero if reaching or going downwind in such a light airs.
2. Winds between 10-20Kn - excellent performance in anything between 50deg to 140deg to the true wind. Difficult to run directly downwind, as the shrouds prevent full opening of the mainsail. If the sea is choppy - beating against the wind at the upper range is unpleasant, the bow pounds.
3. 20-30 kn - the boat still behaves nicely in broad reach and run. Easy to reef (I have reefed singlehanded downwind). Very difficult to beat against the wind. I did sail the boat under engine in 20-24Kn directly into the wind in a confused sea but with waves of about 3-4 feet only - lot of pounding and spray, but nothing dangerous and you can continue to do anything on board safely.
4. 30-40Kn - We have sailed only downwind in the Biscay and later around cape Finisterre, with 4-5m following waves. Under 3rd reef the boat sailed smoothly and we had drinks in the cockpit. When you get used to it, it is great fun. All reefing and raising sails was done downwind! It was frightening to turn into the wind.

In general - the boat speed over water is about 50% of the apparent wind, up to 10Kn of boat speed.
Beating against the wind, the leeway may be up to 20deg. It depends much on sea state, getting worse as the sea grows.
The genoa tracks are positioned very close to the center of the boat. In anything between reaching and running, the genoa will be happy with a barber hauler or a whisker pole to hold the sail out.
In all kinds of weather the boat felt easy to operate and very safe to move around the decks.
Mark
S/Y Bat-Yam

[timandchanel]

Thank you for the post.

[yme_bosma]

Interesting to read about your downwind reefing experiences. Any do's and dont's when it comes to reefing that way? Do others reef downwind as well?

[meirriba]

I do not know if other people tried downwind reefing. It will be interesting to hear. I will ask friends with cats.
Anyway - as to my experience. I did it several times singlehanded and several times with another crew member. What I/we did was to put the autopilot on windvane mode at an angle of 170-175 deg (not directly downwind to avoid involuntary jibing). Than the main was brougt inboard using the traveler until it was clear that the sail is not leaning on the shrouds.
Next we released the main halyard in short steps (3-4 feets at a time) and collected the reefing line/s accordingly, until the relevant reefing line got to the point we wanted it next to the boom. At this point the halyard was tigthened back, the autopilot adjusted to the required course, the sail adjusted to proper angle and "normal" sailing resumed.
If there were two crew invoved, the releasing of the halyard and pulling on the reefing lines was done simultaneously.
There are benefits and costs as always - the cost is that the main is sliding on the lazypack lines, causing possible chafe. The benefit is that the process is done with considerably lower apparent wind and the boat is going with the waves, and relatively stable. No need to turn into the wind (there would be a moment when the boat is side to the waves - not very safe or pleasant when the waves are high).

[suz_lee]

we are currently sailing on a 440 and a few months ago in the med we hit a 65knt storm with 6 meter swells. I personally wasn't sailing but it handled it perfectly. all sails were down and we just surfed the waves. previous to before that we were sailing at 3 reefs with 30-35knt winds and it felt safe.

hope this helps